


Familiar faces

by Miss_Mayhem



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, I have a plan and a plot and an outline, Kosmo and Rover are important, Multi, Witches and Familiars, all of them as friends, modern setting with magic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-29
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-18 23:53:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17590805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_Mayhem/pseuds/Miss_Mayhem
Summary: Rifts of unknown origin and purpose are opening in seemingly random locations, threatening the magical and non-magical world alike.After the Arus incident left her completely drained, magical prodigy Allura Altea has to begrudgingly face the fact, that she might actually need help with this. Help that might come from a group of students and their own magical abilities and, where they lack such, their stubborn determination and refusal to give up.A modern setting, where magic is accepted, yet not exeedingly common.There will be magic, romance and pillow fights





	1. The Arus incident

“And now, coming to you live from the small town of Arus, where just two days ago, young sorceress Allura Altea singlehandedly closed a rift of clearly magical origin, likely saving thousands of inhabitants in the process. The aftereffects such an incident might have on the population, environment and wildlife can only be assumed at this point. The atmosphere here in Arus remains tense, many citizens thankful to Altea, while others demand answers to what might have caused the rift in the first place. Authorities have since declared a natural phenomenon the most likely cause, while the possibility of it being a deliberate attack cannot be ignored. Why the mostly non-magical community of Arus would become a target of any attack remains unclear. Altea, as well as her still mysterious feline familiar, have not been seen since the incident. It is assumed “

The video paused, making Keith, who hadn't been paying close attention until then, look up. It was not like there was anything new to be seen anyway, the Arus incident being the only thing on every news channel for the past two days.

The news segment was paused to the image of a young woman with flowing masses of white hair, illuminated by an eery blue light, concentration and determination written on her face as she pushed her hands into the soil to her feet. The blue light seemed to radiate from within her, the marks on her cheeks glowing with it, as well as the eyes of her giant black familiar leaning against her, long tail protectively wrapped around her back.

Lance was sitting on the floor right in front of the TV, remote clutched to his chest as he sighed heavily and continued to make heart eyes at the screen.

“This is without a doubt the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. I mean woman. I mean witch.. No, I mean woman.“

Keith made sound that he meant to be non-committal, annoyed and slightly disgusted at Lance's antics, thought not disgusted at Altea because she was in fact quite beautiful, but found that maybe that was a bit much information to convey with a snort. Lance clearly didn't pick up on all the nuances and shot him a dirty look.

“Allura Altea is a godlike creature send from the heavens or rather some magical kingdom to save humanity! ..Woman. Also, she is the greatest witch of this century, but probably ever, and you are hardly worthy to look upon her perfect features!“

Keith shrugged. “She is a pretty great sorceress, undeniably. The way she handled that rift thing...“

His focus shifted to the black form next to her on the screen. The familiar was intriguing, their bond clearly visible in the blue glow permeating them both, yet they were rarely seen together. Altea had not even revealed her familiars name to the public. The cat remained a mystery.

“What is the deal with her familiar though?“ Keith asked. “I mean what kind of cat even is that? People keep calling them her black lion, but come on, that is not a lion!“ He gestured to the screen.

Lance was clearly thrilled at the amount of interest bestowed. “I think they're a panther of some sort. Or like a leopard. Or a jaguar. Wait, is there a difference?“

“No, look at that tail!“ Keith was getting into this now. “It's longer then the whole rest of them by a whole bit.“

“Cheetahs have long tails.“, Lance interjected.

“Yeah, but cheetahs are way smaller and more kind of, I don't know, frilly looking. I mean look at that cat, it's massive!“

Lance stopped to think for a moment. “It's probably magic“, he offered. “The magic can change the familiar, right, giving it certain abilities of its own, higher intelligence, ability to understand human speech, it can probably give a jaguar a longer tail. And make it bigger. Like, way bigger. And make it pitch black with glowy blue eyes I guess. For the aesthetic or something.“

Keith shrugged again. “I guess.“

There was a ping and Lance picked up his phone, his face lighting up at the text he had received. “Guess who's not having cold rice with ketchup like the poor, broke students they are tonight?“ he sing-songed, rising from his place on the floor and shutting of the TV with a last longing glance. “Hunk just invited us over for dinner!“

 

 

The sunlight falling into the room was filtered through the thousands of leaves of a massive oak tree in front of the open window, painting dots of light and shadow on every surface and making dust particles dance and glitter in the soft breeze. It had rained last night, the scent of water, grass and earth soothing and invigorating in the air. Allura stretched her neck a bit to bury her face deeper into the pillow. The sheets were freshly laundered, yet the scent of her favourite detergent, “fresh breeze“, couldn't even begin to compare. Still, this was nice. Warm and soft, and smelling of home.

Allura heard the door open, and then there was the enticing scent of fresh coffee mixing into the olfactory buffet, prompting her to sit up a little.

“Good morning, princess! How do you feel? Up to face the world again?“ Matt was balancing a little tray through the door and Allura could make out a plate, presumably food, and a mug with actual daisies planted in it. Allura smiled, while she loved flowers, she didn't like cutting them just to enjoy them in a vase for a few days. Right now though, her interest centered more on the steaming second mug on the tray.

Matt bumped the door closed with his hip. Somehow the delicious coffee smell subsided.

“I made you honey toast, because carbs are energy, and a big mug of tea, and there's juice and eggs in the kitchen when you're feeling up to it, though you might wanna start small.“

Allura whined. She knew she sounded like a spoiled child not getting her way, but right now, she didn't much care. “Where is the coffee, Matt? Do not try to hide it from me, I can smell it.“

“'Lura, you really shouldn't have coffe right now. The stunt with the rift really did a number on you, you've completely drained yourself. Let's start slow, with carbs and tea, and little daisies in a mug because we couldn't find a pot, okay?“ Matt was smiling at her, and if there was a glimmer of fear in his eyes, he hid it really well.

“Shiro can have coffee, apparently.“ She was not yet ready to give up the petulant child act, still hoping it would get her anywhere.

“What makes you think that's not my coffee?“ Matt tried to defend.

“Because you are not allowed coffe and Shiro wouldn't let you have any. And had you yet somehow found yourself unsupervised and unable to resist your bodies urges, you would not be able to still hold the tray without spilling not-coffee all over the comforter. So. Why can Shiro have coffee while I cannot?“

“Because Shiro has been up for hours, had his tea and juice until he was properly rehydrated and has since wolfed down 3 persons worth of breakfast. Seriously, I don't know how he does it, those were like all our eggs. Minus one I saved for you, but I had to pry the pan away from him under threat of violence. He has since moved on to pancakes, but I thought toast and honey might be better for you, because he has drowned them in butter and syrup. Seriously, it was a massacre. So please, have your tea and honey, and when you're feeling better, I might be tempted to make you a cappucino.“

While she still felt the pulling temptation to argue, Allura relented. Not that she would admit this out loud, but Matt did actually have a point, she was pretty drained. So she sat up more and had him hand her the tray, balancing it on her knees and reaching for the mug. It was actually pretty nice tea.

Allura had nearly finished her breakfast, slowly nibbling away at the toast but already on the second mug of tea Matt had refilled for her, when the door was opened again and Shiro walked in, dragging his feet over to them and then unceremoniously dropping himself into the bed at Allura's side, jostling the tray in the process. Matt caught it before plate and daisy mug could hit the floor, then setting both onto the nightstand.

“Good morning to you too“ Allura smiled, carding her hand through his hair where he was faceplanted into the pillow next to her. He made a grumbling sound and answered “'S'afternoon“ without so much as trying to lift his face from the bed.

“Oh. How long have I been asleep?“

He turned his head to look at her, just slightly as not to dislodge the hand still in his hair. “'Bout 15hours again. You really seemed to need it. That rift was way more than we anticipated this time.“

“Speaking of which-“ Allura turned to Matt who was sitting on the foot end of the bed, “any progress on what those things are or how to predict them?“

“Not really. It's the same kind of energy as the last two, but way stronger this time. Still no idea what it is or where it is coming from. Shiro and I have been thinking about the three locations so far, if there is any sort of connection between them, but if there is, we havn't found it. Also, there is no linear progression, the second incident was actually weaker then the first, with the third now blowing up in our faces. We don't have enough data to even make educated guesses yet, let alone discern a pattern.“

“So we won't have an early warning to stop a new incident in time...“

“Are you sure it's a good idea to even take on the next one, Princess, presuming there is a next one? You nearly got yourselves blown up this time. Maybe this isn't a one-team-fix-all sort of situation here. Maybe we do need help.“

Allura frowned. “And who is going to help us, Matt? The new council is weak, if not in power, then in spirit.“

“Also in power“, came Shiro's muffled voice from the side.

“These incidents have the potential to destroy whole towns, and they might well grow in size and severity. We have just been lucky the first ones haven't hit populated areas, but luck seems to be running out quickly. The counsil will not do anything, you know they won't, they are declaring it a natural phenomenon as we speak. They would rather just look away first and offer their condolences later, then act and risk jeopardizing their good relations with the non magic world. But I will not stand for that. The name Altea has always been standing for the duty to help, to do the things that others cannot, because we *can* . Our gifts make this our responsibility, and I refuse to do anything less!“

An unhappy sound from Shiro stopped her passionate speech and Allura looked down at her hand where it had just rubbed an angry circle onto the same area of Shiro's back. Matt held up his hands.

“I don't even mean the council necessarily. There are other people that could help. I want to show our data so far to my sister. She's really good with patterns and energy readings, and.. everything really, she might see something we didn't. Help us figure out what we're dealing with and how to stop it. We can't run around trying to stuff leaks forever, we have to find out where the flood is coming from.“

“I like the idea of asking his sister.“, Shiro said. “She's half the size, but twice the genius.“

 

 

“This smells amazing, Hunk! It's like walking into a spice cabinet!“

Lance was already on his way into the kitchen of the tiny apartment Hunk and his roomate Pidge shared, determined to get a look and probably a finger into every pot on the stove. Hunk smiled and explained his newest creation while swatting Lace away.

“Yeah, well, it's this plant Shay told me about that her family used to have where she grew up and they just managed to cultivate it here. It's actually a type of fungus you see, but it grows these bulbs that you can harvest, but it's really hard to grow it here, because it's used to really nutrient-deficient soil. But they just had their first harvest and Shay saved some bulbs for me to try. They are pretty sweet, but also kind of savory, and they really go well with curry, let me tell you!“

The smell really was glorious and Keith felt his mouth water. While he would not have had rice and ketchup for dinner (he was not an animal, thank you Lance), pasta and ketchup had been a realistic option, and this promised to be so much better. He busied himself setting the table with Hunks mismatched plates and cutlery and then went to get glasses, greeting Pidge as he passed her. She was sitting at her desk which was, as usual, so cluttered with papers, machine parts she was currently tinkering with and empty candy bar wrappers, that there wasn't room left for the book she was using to cross-reference one thing or the other at the moment. So she was just hovering it in the air nex to her chair, in both a blatant display of her inherent magic and the absolute lack of interest she had in this ability. Her greeting consisted of a short grunt, but Rover, who was perched on his usual place on top of her computer screen, said a cheery “Hi Keith“ in a perfect imitation of her voice. It was still kinda creepy. Particularly because Pidge never sounded cheery.

When dinner was served, Pidge tried to hover her full plate over to her desk without even turning around. Hunk caught the plate and put it firmly down on the table.

“No, we have guests over, so you will sit on the table with us like a normal human being“ he demended.

“It's just Lance and Keith“ Pidge grumbled.

“Still, you are not a gremlin, they have better manners.“ Hunk said. “So come sit at the table with us, and, who knows, maybe even have a conversation. Oh, and if that bird sheds into the stew again, he is permanently banned from dinner time.“

“It's called moulting.“, the Beo replied.


	2. Illusory motion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> about dealing with boredom, the deep, and a hot shirtless dumpster-man

The drive was absolutely, horribly, mindnumbingly boring.

It had seemed like a good idea, in theory. A week after the incident, Arus was overrun by reporters, paparazzi and tourists hoping for a spectacle. Allura couldn't leave the house unless she wanted to be trampled down by spectators while a dozen camera crews recorded.It was time to leave, find a quiet place to regroup and rethink. And Matt was right, they could use some extra brain power doing the rethinking with them.

The first few hours had been fine.

Since Allura couldn't be the one to go shopping, and Shiro, as the biggest and strongest of them, was predetermined to be the one doing the heavy lifting getting their stuff packed in into the trunk of their car, Matt had taken it upon himself to get the snacks for their roadtrip. His method for this was obviously “unsupervised 5 year old with an unlimited credit card meets candy store“, so the inside of the car now looked like a sad cautionary tale about the dangers of diabetes.

Shiro as the first driver picked the music,and they left Arus behind to the sound of a baritone, a tenor and an alto belting along to Adele.

That had been eons and lightyears ago.

The road in front of them stretched on until the ends of recorded time. The singing had faded, then the conversation, and Shiro felt the next thing to go would be his will to live. Matt was driving now, Allura next to him in the passenger seat was blankly staring out of the window. Shiro really wasn't great with confined spaces, so he had the back to himself, to sprawl out on the backseats. The truth of course was, that he could lay on a sofa. Maybe he could sprawl on a kingsize bed. This was a car. He would be happy if he could _unfold_.

“I spy with my little eye..“ Matt started, only to be interrupted by a double groan.

“Please don't make the boredom level actually fatal, Matt!“, Allura pleaded.

“Hey, how is this worse then staring into thin air for hours? You're right, it isn't. So. I spy with my little eye something that is, hm, green.“

“It's corn.“

“How did you know?!“

“Because everything is corn. Everywhere. I have been staring at corn for the past 4 hours. Had you said blue I would still have assumed corn, because corn has taken over any other thing in existens outside this vehicle!“

“You're no fun.“ Matt muttered.

“How about this“, Shiro sat up in the backseat, trying to ignore his protesting back. “I follow my brother wherever we go, but you can never see me. I roar after he passed, but you can never hear him. What are we?“

Allura turned to him, interest piqued. “Two mute brothers?“

“No, you can't hear one, but you can't see the other.“, Matt interjected. “Boy and his shadow!“

Allura smacked his arm “Your shadow doesn't roar. Also, you can see a shadow.“

They started bickering and Shiro smiled, dismissing their next suggestions.

“It's a magic thing, isn't it?“, Matt asked. “So there are these brothers, and they angered a witch, and she cursed them. Now one brother is mute and the other is invisible and they follow each other everywhere because the mute brother communicates in sign language and needs the other brother to translate, and because he's invisible, he roars so people don't permanently bump into him.“

Shiro blinked. “Um. I guess that technically works, but no, that's not the answer to the riddle, Matt.“

“Maybe the witch cursed both with an inability to communicate“, Allura offered. “So one brother can only roar, while the other cannot speak at all.“

“There was no witch!“

“A birth defect maybe?“ Matt sounded hopeful.

“No. No curses. And no birth defects. Think more figuratively! Like, things rather then people.“

“You can see one thing but not hear it, and hear the other but not see it.“ A crease between Alluras brows started to deepen. “A hot air ballon followed by a camouflaged fighter jet!“

Shiro snorted “What?!“

“Come on man, give us a hint!“

“It's a natural phenomenon.“

Matts next guess was waterfall, followed by Alluras equally intelligent river. After that they just tried listing things vaguely related to nature. Shiro stopped them when Matt said storm.

“Storm, close!“

“Hurricane! Weather! Wind! Rain! Hurricane!“ Matt was shouting.

“The riddle describes it as brothers“ Shiro tried to help.

“Thunder and lightning!“

“YES! Allura wins!“

“Oh I knew that.“, Matt tried complaining.

“You really really didn't.“, Shiro laughed. “'Lura, do you know another one?“

“I think I do. What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three legs in the evening?“

A brief silence followed.

“A man. Allura, really? The riddle of the sphinx? What do you take us for, illiterate?“

She pouted a little. “You do one if you think you can do better!“

“Okay“, Matt grinned. “What is big, brown and eats rocks?“

“A bear?“

“A dinosaur?“

“Those desert worm things from 'Dune'?“

“You'll never guess, so I'll tell you this one. It's the big brown rock-eater. And what is big, grey and eats sand?“

“The big grey sand-eater.“, Shiro answered.

“Wrong! It's the big brown rock-eater's granny!“ This earned him a shove from the backseat that nearly made them swerve off the road and into a wall of corn.

The riddles alleviated the boredom for an hour or so, but eventually they couldn't think of more and were once again swallowed by silence and boredom and corn.

 

They reached their destination about half a lifetime later. Allura had parked the car on a hill overlooking Garrison City for a last snack and bathroom break, or in this case more like a find-a-bush-if-you-really-need-to break, and Shiro gratefully extracted himself from the back seat. He dug his bare feet into the dirt. This was what heaven felt like.

“You know what?“ He didn't even turn around to wait for their reactions. “I'm gonna walk the rest of the way.“

 

 

The merman was gliding through the water in long fluid strides, the unhurried motions of his tail not giving away the growing frustration behind his stoic exterior. He had lost his prey to a reef shark earlier today and hunger had since settled itself deep inside his guts.

The sun was starting to set in the surface and the dimming light made a successful hunt that much more unlikely. The reef was buzzing with life, but while food was plentyful, the competition was even more so, from the sharks to morays to other mers. He briefly wondered what hunting would be like away from the reef, in the open sea. Surely there would be no annoying reef sharks to bully him out of a meal. There were said to be giant swarms of tuna out there, thousands strong, a meal waiting to be taken. That thought was enticing.

But he knew the stories about the deep.

Light didn't reach down there, a darkness so true and all-encompassing that you would start to see all new colours and lights, but when you did it would be too late. Waters so cold and currents so strong they would carry you away until you lost the sense of up and down, until your senses tricked you and you would swim deeper and deeper still, to be swallowed by the dark. Mers so old and giant you would think the ocean floor itself had moved to crush you, alone in the deep, and the dark, and the cold, singing songs so slowly it would take a reef mer's lifetime to make out the melody.

The deep was no place for the reef born. But right now, it seemed, neither was the reef.

The mer considered his options. Going hungry another day, or trying to catch some crabs, which would pretty much amount for the same. Trying to snatch a carcass from a shark, which was dangerous, you had to be very quick and even then you risked becoming the next meal yourself. The deep... no. The shore.

Humans were loud, inelegant creatures, splashing through the water then staggering up the dunes to dry out in the sun. Risky, also, with their need to poke at everything they didn't understand with sharp sticks. But, they tended to leave the beaches for the night, usually leaving behind all sorts of more-or-less edible garbage. An undignified thought. His stomach didn't care.

The tidepool was a gathering point for human garbage, some of it indeed edible. He was picking what technically counted for a meal out of heaps of slowly rotting plastic when he felt it.

A crackling sensation along his scales, like the elctric build-up during a thunderstorm right before lightning hit. The sky was clear though. Before he could find out where the sensation was coming from, it intensified to the point of agony, accompanied by a sound like a wave when it receded back from the sand, and for a moment everything went bright, as if the tidepool was lit by the midday sun. With a sharp crack darkness returned.

The water was calm. Floating in between plastic garbage and rotting kelp, there was a body, small and vulnerable. One leg was tangled in an old fishing net.

 

~~  
~~

 

The lecture was absoutely, horribly, mindnumbingly boring.

Pidge was sitting in the back row, sulking and contemplating her life choices up to the moment that had her taking 'Principles of aerodynamics in unmanned flight crafts' as her last course on Tuesday evenings. The whole semester so far amounted to “wind can alter the flightpath of your drones“ and that was just an outrageous waste of her time.

Keith had opted for a lecture on Aeroelasticity instead, at ass o'clock monday mornings, but with far more interesting content.

Hunk just felt 'preparing Tuesday dinners' was more important, he could get the credits between semesters working at the radio telescope array outside the city.

Pidge swore to put even more time into avionics next semester. She turned her attention to Lance who was stuck here with her. They had constructed an intricate building out of several pens, two rulers and pieces of kneadable eraser, and Lance was currently trying to balance skittles on top to see how many he could put there before they lost the construction to instability. Pidge was just trying to crown their creation with a little cat figurine, when the sudden movement of students at the end of the lecture toppled it, sending pens and skittles flying across the table. She caught one ruler midair, hovering it back to Lance who stuffed everything into his backpack in his hurry to get out.

“So, I hear Hunk is making lasagna tonight.“

She turned around to look back at her friend as she walked out the door. “Cannelloni, actually.“

Walking backwards she bumped into someone, but before Pidge could even mutter an apology, she was swept off her feet into a bear hug.

“Kaaaatiiieeee!“

Her squeak of indignation was muffled into her brothers shoulder. A few feet down the hall she spotted Allura. The choking sound of Lance inhaling a skittle behind her must mean that he had seen her as well.

 

 

Keith had tried to cram in some work on an assignment before dinner when had received a distress call from Hunk.

“Keith, I need you to get me some ricotta, it's important! I have to stay here to watch the sauce, but I need that ricotta. It would not be the same without ricotta, Keith!“

Hunk had sounded desperate and Keith figured helping the friend that regularily fed him something other then instant ramen took precedence over homework.

He was walking across the parking lot behind the store to take a shortcut to the next street over when a man stepped out from behind a dumpster. Keith stopped, then got into a defensive stance. If this was a robbery, he was not ready to give up the ricotta.

The stranger looked up, saw Keith and stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes widened, making him look like a deer caught in headlights. His black hair was disheveled, he was shirtless, and the motion of his hands as he dropped them to his sides suggested that he had just finished buttoning up his jeans. This seemed like an unusual strategy for a robbery.

“Uhm, hi.“

“Hi.“, Keith answered, trying his best not to ogle the strangers bare chest. The guy was built like a greek statue. If this was the last thing he saw before getting murdered behind a dumpster, it might just be worth it.

The man noticed Keith staring and blushed. He was playing with the hem of the shirt he was holding, as if unsure if putting it on now would make the situation less awkward or more. Apparently he decided to power through this encouter shirtless.

“Uhm, can you tell me how I get to Garrison College?“

“Uh, yeah, you follow that street, take a right at the intersection, left at the next and there are signs from there.“

“Okay, cool. Thanks.“

“Yeah, sure.“

They were still staring at each other.

“Uhm, I'll just, uh, go then...“

As he was walking past him, Keith couldn't help but stare at the strangers' nicely defind back muscles. Had he just given directions to the college to hot, shirtless dumpster-man? What had just happened?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The pieces will come together later, or so I hope  
> I picture merpeople with more like a shark tail, with a vertical tail fin; although I don't think that will be relevant for this, so happy head-canoning for all

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is it, the first chapter of the first fic I ever posted anwhere. And I even have a plan how to continue, like an actual plot. I have an outline and everything!  
> For anyone interested, Alluras familiar most closely resembles a jaguar concerning body- and headshape, but is quite a big bigger and has a much longer tail. Magically long.  
> Also, English is not my first language, so if there are any gruesome spelling or grammar mistakes, just let me know


End file.
